Wade Phillips has been fired as coach of the Dallas Cowboys by Jerry Jones.

Jason Garrett, the offensive coordinator and occasional heir apparent, will be the interim coach. He's long been a hot commodity as a head-coaching candidate and has been paid like a head coach by Jones in order to keep him on staff. Now he gets his chance to try to turn around the Cowboys with half the season remaining. The regime chance was first reported by Bill Jones of Dallas' CBS affiliate.

Phillips, 63, was 34-22 in his fourth season as the team's coach; more significantly, he was 1-2 in the playoffs. Momentum for his firing had been picking up speed and comes on the heels of the Cowboy's 45-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night.